Page 5

Escape

Ozyn

G lorin liked to relish in my suffering. It fed him like the parasite he was. Often he would parade me through the halls of the castle, dirty and dressed in rags, just to show how low I’d fallen.

With our marriage pact broken, skirmishes had resumed between dragons and the fae. Not full on war, though, neither side had the numbers.

This time, they weren’t going in the fae’s favor. We were too evenly matched, the rage of my people for me added strength to their forces. Yet, we still lost dragons.

Some were stolen young, brought to this forsaken place and made to fight for entertainment, usually to the death. Lives over before they could truly begin. They reminded me of my children, adding further pain to the torment. I took those memories of my family and tucked them away to preserve them.

The games he played with the young dragons made it truly unsafe for Glorin to visit me for my heats, even with a retinue of guards to watch. Adding to that, the danger of me being in heat, unmated, around alpha dragons, Glorin finally decided to alter the spell work on my cuffs, giving me control over my heat cycles once more.

A reprieve from him, but I could not help losing more of myself with each of my people, dragons I had never had the chance to meet, dying for the entertainment of a monster.

I thought, at one point, I had gained an ally in the court. The youngest of the Darkglade siblings, Safilix. He would sit with me, trying to communicate when I was so far from the person he’d met at my wedding to his brother.

He spent a lot of time with me, hiding from his brother who hated him almost as much as he hated me. Safi would tell me gossip from the court. It was from him I learned what I knew about my people.

For my shame, I used Safi, though I was sure he knew what I was going to do and maybe hoped it worked.

I nearly got free.

After the beating I got on being discovered, I almost broke my promise to that unknown voice. They begged me once more to hold on, my alpha was coming, he would need me.

I drew further into myself for my protection, becoming the feral beast in the dark.

There. Something was different. I felt my mind sharpen, becoming lucid after so many years.

I was alone. Always alone. My meals were pushed along the floor by magic, or perhaps someone invisible put them there. I never saw another soul. Never spoke to anyone.

For who knows how long, I stayed lost in the dark, pacing my cell, until agony flooded my system, taking me to my knees. I clutched my head, fingers tangling in my matted hair.

My mate! Something was wrong with my mate.

Out. Out. Out. I have to get out!

Pain. There’s so much pain.

I feel him. He needs me.

Out. I need to get out.

Mate.

My mate needs my protection, my magic. I could lose him before I even meet him.

Close. I feel him close.

Out.

I have to get out of here!

Anything! Please, anyone, help me get to him. I’ll do anything to save him. It’s me he needs. I can protect him.

Let me out!

My roars shook the castle as I let out all my hopelessness, rage and fear I would lose my mate before I could leave this damned place.

On and on I voiced my pain until, at last, Glorin sent the guards and his best magic users to silence me.

Even through my panic for my mate, I still felt pleasure for the looks of fear on the court’s faces.

They needed to fear me, because one day soon I would destroy them all.

When I woke, I stayed quiet, working on my plan to escape. My best option was getting out of the cuffs, melting the bars, and slipping out.

The chains weren’t suppressing my magic like they used to, a fact which worked in my favor. Either that or the constant buzz of need in my brain was overpowering the ancient spell work.

“Push it down. Save it. Save him,” I chanted to myself, speaking the words aloud in a raspy voice, as I stored the magic deep within, preparing for the moment I could let it burst free. Unleash its devastating power and get out.

“Save some. A crumb. For your fire,” I reminded myself. There was no one near to hear my croaky words as I spoke.

It had been so long since I breathed fire I almost worried I wouldn’t manage. The longing I felt to be in my dragon form was enough to steal my concentration. No, I had to store the magic. I would breathe fire.

A blaze so vast it would scorch everything in my path. I would burn it all. For him.

My wrists bled where I had pulled at the spelled metal. They didn’t matter. I could suffer such a small injury if it meant I could get out. The blood could be useful, slicking the way for my hands to slip free.

Free.

After being a prisoner for so long, I hardly knew the meaning of the word. Now my fated mate was near, I knew things would be different if I could just get away.

Close. My alpha was so close to me. He was my every thought. Nothing mattered but him.

Hurt. I felt his pain more than my own. Recently, I’d felt flickers of him. I knew why and where he was.

The portal.

The guards had gotten sloppy, allowing me to hear them gossiping. They had said the elves had opened a permanent portal to the human realm sometime ago. Time was pretty meaningless to me, stuck, imprisoned as I was.

Yet, I had felt that change and begun counting, tallying the hours by the passage of the sun and moon by how the darkness lightened and deepened in increments, though I was sure there was still time missing. My mind felt fractured, broken by years of abuse, loneliness, and being stuck in the dark.

On the other side of the portal, that was where my mate was. I was sure of it. I would find him near it on the human side. At least, I thought so.

Regardless, he was nearly within my reach. As a dragon, I would find him quickly.

I could feel him desperately needing me to go to him.

Frustrated, I growled low as the blood failed to allow my fingers to pass through the cuffs.

The need of my mate sharpened my logic, returning me further to my senses. For so long, I’d been lost to the constant ache of hunger, the pain of the torture Glorin had subjected me to by making me hear my dragons die. Being unable to stretch my wings.

“Ozyn?” came a whispered voice. It had been so long since he’d last attempted to speak to me. I was surprised his brother let him live after last time. I’d nearly gotten free, would have escaped if I hadn’t been so damn weak.

“Safi?” my voice was as rough as the sound of two rocks grinding together.

The fae tiptoed around the corner. “Shh!” he chided, still barely speaking over a murmur. “You’ve got the entire castle on edge. My brother’s advisor…”

I let out a growl at the mention of the cursed fae who had trapped me in this godforsaken castle.

“Hush! Please!” Safi pleaded, speaking louder now. “Glorin doesn’t know I’m here. The court, they thought I could calm you before you bring the place down on us.”

He lit a sconce with a match, his magic too unpredictable to use himself. A shaft of light illuminated the dank room where I was held, allowing me to see the fae.

“You’re talking about treason, going against your king’s orders. Don’t you remember the last time?” There was no point in begging the fae to help me escape. I would have to wait until he left to resume my attempts as much as it chafed at me to stay still.

My mate needed me. My suffering meant nothing next to his. The pain he was in needled at my skin constantly. A burr I couldn’t shift.

The fae glanced at his butterfly-like wings, a beautiful shade of violet, the same color as the morning sky before she gave way to the sun. His eyes matched his wings. He slumped, defeated, before finding resolve and straightening.

It was then I took a closer look, the anemic light from the sconce allowing me to see his formerly beautiful wings. He was the treasure of the royal court once. No longer. Not with the scars marring his wings.

“Did he—?” I couldn’t bring myself to ask what Glorin had done to his youngest sibling. He saved all his cruelty for Safilix, just never leaving a permanent physical scar. Well, not before…. Seemed that, like so many other things, he had changed.

“It does not matter,” he said, this time in an almost normal tone. His spine was straighter, like he was siphoning off my defiance of his king and using it to fuel his courage.

“Why are you here, Safi?”

“I am to assist you.”

My heartbeat picked up. Hope, a foreign emotion for so long, swelled within me. “You’re letting me go?”

Safi shook his head. “All I can do is unlock those cuffs.” His head tilted towards the magic soaked metal coated in my blood from my efforts to get free. “Everything else you will have to do yourself.”

It was more than enough. With the magic I’d been storing, I would level this castle. Not before I made sure Glorin died. I would eat him myself if I didn’t have somewhere else to be.

“They’ll come once I let out the signal,” I warned. “They won’t be far. Get yourself and whoever else you want to live, out.”

“No guards are to come here for the next hour. It is all I can give you. Send your signal, bring the other dragons, put an end to this.” Safi looked resolute.

“Are you so ready to die?”

“For what my people have done to yours? Yes.”

He reached through the bars to my waiting arms and unlocked the cuffs, the ones that had kept my powers dampened for decades. Not my strength, though, which Glorin learned to his cost. I wish I’d ripped his head off instead of going for his wings. The cuffs clattered to the stone floor.

Then Safilix handed me a bundle.

“Here. Some food. I cannot tell when they last fed you. Clothes too.” I tried to hide my disgust. There was no chance I would clothe myself in fae fabrics. My mate would have to excuse my nudity.

“Thank you. Please run, Safi. For all you have done, I owe you the chance to run.”

“Where will you go?”

I looked towards the wall, feeling the call of my mate. He was blocked from me suddenly. Not gone. No, my soul would feel his loss. Perhaps he slept.

“Not to my people. They have no need of me now. Rezoth is king. I have to go to the portal.”

He looked torn for a moment. His hands suddenly clasped the bars. “Let me come with you.”

I jerked, surprised. “What?”

“Take me into your service as payment for some of what has been done to you. My life is yours. Take me with you. I can help.”

My eyes met his. For once, Safi did not look meek. He was resolved in this.

Perhaps having him with me would be a good thing. He would be a decent hostage if nothing else. Or I could eat him if I got hungry. No, I couldn’t eat Safi. It was not his fault I had been stuck in the dungeon for decades.

“Fine. You will come with me to the portal. I am not wearing these.” I dropped the bundle to the ground before spotting a leg of lamb. Scooping it up, I bit into it with a moan. I had not realized just how hungry I was.

“Stand back,” I said once I swallowed a mouthful of the tender meat.

Safi moved away, his eyes locked on me as I took a breath and let out a stream of fire. Not wanting to waste it, I concentrated it on the lock, melting it until it dripped onto the dirty floor.

With a kick, the door blasted open, ricocheting off the wall.

“Shh!” Safi whisper-yelled, looking alarmed.

Sending out as much power as I dared, I pushed my thoughts towards the bond I had with my brothers, hoping our deep bond had them nearby as they likely felt my fear and pain for my mate. I dared not think of my children, lest my resolve falter. The mate I had been waiting for relied on me getting to him swiftly. There was no time for anything else.

Vale? Mira? Laer? I’m free!

I hoped they were close because our bond would only work within a few miles. Still, I used what magic I could spare to push the boundary of our connection out further. I needed them to do what I could not.

Without waiting for a response, I left the cell, took Safi by the arm with my filthy hand, and ran for the stairs.

Now that the cuffs were off, the magic in my blood was working to heal the damage of years of captivity. I struggled to move with my usual fluid grace while muscles which were atrophied rebuilt themselves.

By the time we reached the top, both of us were breathless, I was more like my old self, just very thin and covered in dirt.

Ozyn? Three very familiar voices reached me. Relief nearly took me to my knees. They were close!

We’re nearly there. That one was Laeros. Wait for us, brother.

I cannot, I sent back to them all, regret in my mental voice. As much as I was desperate to see them, to hear about my boys, I was needed elsewhere. My mate is waiting.

“Once we get outside, I will shift. Can I carry you? My brothers will be here soon. I do not want to leave you behind at their mercy.”

“Please let me warn who I can. You can carry me if you would like. My life is yours.”

His bravery was admirable. I knew Safilix was terrified, yet he wanted to do what was right by the people paid to protect the king and kingdom.

“Alright. Do what you must.”

We burst out of the dungeon into the guards’ courtyard. There they stood, frozen with fear.

My shift, the first in possibly a century, was effortless. My other form was just as emaciated as I was, yet powerful enough to end these men.

“Flee if you want to live!” Safi yelled from my side. “The dragons are coming!”

They turned and fled. Smart.

With his broken wings, Safi managed to flutter high enough to get on my back. There he clung on to my secondary scales around my neck. They formed a band which I could flare to protect a passenger or the joints of my wings.

I took flight, relishing the feeling of the wind under my wings, the stretch of muscles as they worked to get my body into the air. My tail flicked, crashing into a tower and bringing it down.

On top of my back, Safi continued to shout his warnings.

Brothers, burn them all, kill the king, and meet me on the other side of the portal. My mate needs me or I would eat Glorin myself.

Ozyn— Vale protested.

I do not think he has long left. Please, let me go.

They each gave their acceptance.

We will follow.

Up into the clouds I flew, relieved to be leaving that hell behind, and hopeful I would make it to my mate in time.